EVERYDAY OBJECTS MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. [Illustration: EVERYDAY OBJECTS. (_Frontispiece._)] EVERYDAY OBJECTS OR Picturesque Aspects of Natural History. _WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS._ EDITED AND ENLARGED BY W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS, AUTHOR OF "THE CIRCLE OF THE YEAR," "SWORD AND PEN," "BEFORE THE CONQUEST," ETC. "To know That which about us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom." MILTON. WILLIAM P. NIMMO: LONDON: 14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND; AND EDINBURGH. 1876. [Illustration] PREFACE. [Illustration] The very favourable reception accorded both by Press and Public to the "Circle of the Year," has induced me to prepare a second volume, similar in design, but dealing with different branches of the same subject. As the former was founded on the _first_ series of a popular French work, "Les Saisons," by M. Hoefer, so the present has been suggested by the _second_ series; but in availing myself of it, I have omitted much, I have revised more, and at various parts my additions have been considerable. And here, as in my former effort, I have written from a popular rather than a scientific point of view. It has not been my object to sketch the outlines or lay down the foundations of any science; but to show, as best I could, how much of wonder and beauty enters into our daily life, and what inexhaustible sources of study lie at our very feet. It is, perhaps, a misfortune of our common systems of education that they too much neglect the tuition of the eye; that the young are not taught to mark the curious and interesting objects which are comprehended within their daily vision; that they know so much about ancient mythology and so little about modern science,--so much about gods and heroes, so little about stars and flowers. I have called this volume "Everyday Objects," not because those which it describes may be seen every day, but because they mostly belong to the region of the commonplace and familiar; and I have called it "Picturesque Aspects of Natural History," because I have endeavoured, in companionship with my French _collaborateur_, to indicate the poetical side of the various sciences into which I have presumed to penetrate. If it should awaken a love of nature in any breast, or develop a spirit of inquiry, which may lead the student further and further on the path of knowledge, the labour bestowed upon these pages will not have been in vain.